California Progressives Try to Prevent Chick-Fil-A Opening in San Francisco Suburb
Richard Moorhead
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San Mateo county officials are trying to prevent the opening of a Chick-Fil-A location in Redwood City, California, claiming that the fried chicken franchise is hostile to the LGBT community.
David Canepa, a San Mateo county supervisor, is leading the effort to drive the franchise away from the San Francisco suburb. He claims that “when people think of the Chick-fil-A logo — what they think of is anti-LGBTQ.”
Chick-Fil-A’s ownership has become the target of controversy for their Christian views in support of traditional marriage. Dan Cathy, the CEO of the company, has supported socially conservative organizations such as the Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, in addition to speaking openly about his Christian religion.
Canepa went on to openly profess his opposition to Chick-Fil-A opening in Redwood City, taking it upon himself to try and deny their approval to build a new location on a political basis alone. “What we are trying to do is to make sure Chick-fil-A — if they want to do business here — that there is a lot of pressure here and that they should do the right thing and withdraw their application.”
The restaurant chain doesn’t require zoning permission to utilize their desired location(a former McDonald’s), but county commissioners wish to see them forced out through a community backlash.
Another San Mateo county bureaucrat, Craig Weisner, hypocritically expressed a desire for the local government to allow businesses to operate, while hoping that the “community” would tank the chicken company’s push to open a location in Redwood City. Weisner chairs the county’s LGBTQ Commission.
“I don’t think that we should necessarily be regulating what businesses can open in Redwood City, but I do think that as a community, we can stand up and say we don’t want this particular business which has taken a very open stand against LGBTQ people and spent millions of dollars against us at the heart of our county.”
The fried chicken restaurant chain became a target of liberal protests in 2014, but weathered the animosity to become one of the most popular fast food restaurants in America today.
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